Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Coalition For Breech Birth is hosting the second International Breech Conference in Ottawa, Canada, continuing the important work that began at the first conference in March 2006.

The International Breech Conference seeks to draw on the expertise of birth professionals, while accessing the voices of women who have become keenly aware of the lack of skilled breech care providers, and the impact it has had on them and their reproductive health.

We are seeking speakers and session leaders who have experience with and/or have done research in the area of vaginal breech birth.

Rixa, Just curious. Do they get a fair amount of OB's? I ask because I know many mature Docs who have a lot of experience with breech but will not do a breech delivery in this legal climate even if they think they could.

Pinky,I don't know for sure, but I know they would really like OBs to come. I've been corresponding with the conference organizers as they've been putting it together. The primary purpose of the conference is to train other OBs and midwives on how to do vaginal breech birth. They are bringing in an OB, Dr. Loewen, from Frankfurt, Germany who has done about 400 vaginal breech births over the past 4 years. He "discovered" the upright position for birthing breech babies--usually some variation of standing or kneeling--when he was on the phone and saw his textbook turned upside down (I put it in quotes because a lot of midwives and probably other physicians around the world have been doing upright breeches for a long time). Since he started doing breech births that way, he's never had to use forceps. He is currently working with BA Daviss (of the CPM2000 study in the BMJ) to publish his results.

And a very important secondary purpose is to discuss the impact that current breech practices and policies have on real women.

Please do pass on this to the OBs you know; perhaps they would be interested in passing along their knowledge and skills to a new generation of doctors and midwives.

Rixa, Do you know of any midwife who has experienced a trapped head? If so what did she do? Just curious. I don't have a vested opinion. I just want to get to the truth and that can be tough. The Hanna study reports 6 out of 1000 breech births will end up with a demise on the part of the baby. Now, I have not looked up the study. Perhaps I shall.

Pinky - if you'd like to read the research, please come to the CBB site - www.breechbirth.ca - and hit the research page.

bottom line - yes, the Hannah trial said that. But reanalyisi of the numbers to omit baby mortality & morbidity that oculd not be attributed ot mode of birth brought the mortality back to "firmly on teh fence", and morbidities for the baby were temporary. so risk for the baby - with *conventional* (not ncb active birth, but OB management of various kinds) management, is about even.